Christians?

Heb 11:1 Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.

Heb 11:2 For therein the elders had witness borne to them.

Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear.

There are many kinds and types of Christians today but there is only one that will enter into the Kingdom of God. Abraham followed God, by faith, into a land he had never seen that he and Sarah could become the parents of a great nation. Abraham believed God in spite of the truth of their inability to produce a single offspring before they were about fifty years past the age of birthing a child.

When we study the entire Bible and discard the Oxymoron Ideology of a New Testament Christian, we are taught from the beginning to the end of scripture that we are to have the same “small child-like” faith in God, the Father that we had in our dads when we were 2 to 8 or better years old. Do you remember when your dad knew everything there was to know in the world and he could beat the socks off of Super-man, Bat-man and all the Super Heroes of the Justice League at the same time?

I do! And it is that complete and unreserved faith of a small child that we are to place in God! The doctors tell me that I'm in the final stage of MS and have removed me from the terrible meds they use to fight the disease and I'm happy as a lark... I'm going home! I was saved a little over twenty-one years ago and I have been home-sick ever since. Unlike Paul and John, I have not been to Heaven, neither in spirit nor in body and yet My heart aches to be there! Now, the doctors are foolish for believing they could keep me alive and for believing that they can know when I will die. (Read the book of Job.) God, my Adopted Father, has known that from before the Earth was created but there is no man that knows such things!

And, finally, on this matter of defining a Christian. This is a very dangerous area to walk into in the culture of today, a man can have his fellowship removed at the drop of a hat in this area... requiring both self examination and the examining of one's friends! I am familiar with these reactions, having been kicked out of one church and being banned from a few web sites that have moved over to a “liberal” view of the scriptures. The ?pastor? that booted my family, I should mention, has had his license removed and can no longer preach in a Missionary Baptist Church, even though I did no more than to pray for God's love and leading for the Church Family there. The web sites? I'll not mention them either because there can be no profit for me in Heaven for such and they are prayed for to become aware of the truth of God and to cease leading the Lost into a false sense of security.

So, how do we know a Christian from a pretender? Remember the World's favorite scripture? If you live your life for Christ, you have had Matthew 7:1 used to quiet and to shut your mouth. The truth of the matter is exactly the opposite of the misuse of that single verse ripped out of context, we are to judge by the same standards we wish to be judged by. Couple this with Philippians 2 telling us to work out (to practice) our salvation in our daily lives and it is clearly seen that a Christian, a follower of the Christ, lives as much like Jesus as he or she can and is daily getting closer to perfect.

Stand?

2Ki 9:21 And Joram said, Make ready. And they made ready his chariot. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and found him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.

2Ki 9:22 And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?

2Ki 9:23 And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah.

2Ki 9:24 And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and smote Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.

2Ki 9:25 Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, Jehovah laid this burden upon him:

It is not popular today but as Christians we are called to stake out a position and to stand fast. If we are to rely upon Christ for our salvation we must, with sincere heart call Him in prayer and know, not think, we must know that He is faithful to answer. Now, we have squared away our eternal destiny but it is not a time to relax, there is a great deal to be dealt with. As the LORD did with Jehu, when we will listen to Him, He will give us direction and purpose to be passionate about.

It is very common today to hear, “Don't give me that Holy Spirit junk,” or much worse from both the man outside the church as well as from the long term member. In the recent past I have received that reply from even a pastor and from a pastor/prof. in recent months. But the fact is that the moment a man, woman or a child is saved they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. (1Cor. 6:19) I will, certainly, never tell you that we cannot disobey for why else would we find the caution not to do so? (1Thes. 5:19) God has never been a bully although some read the Jewish Bible, our Old Testament and illustrating their lack of study, try to label Him that and much worse.\

On a personal level I have been saved now for about 21 years and the very first thing I reached for was a personal knowledge of my Savior and that has involved a better than 21 year reading and rereading of the Bible as well as uncounted Topical Studies. I have had false accusations thrown at me that range from I'm a lying heretic to I'm an over-studied Bible scholar. None in that entire range are correct, I'm a man with a GED that has fallen in love with my God and I am doing my best to consume the scriptures!

Just as God wanted Jehu to clean, certain bad elements out of Israel/Judah so has my LORD given me a loving concern for the lost man and the best way to help the lost is to know the scriptures with a degree of intimacy. I came to know my wife by spending time with her, the same is true of the scriptures! My stepfather was a warrior and one great lesson he taught me is that a man will die for what he loves. I would die defending my wife and I have done my very best, on a daily basis to die to myself, that I might live for God. But, in the end, it comes down to one thing, you must decide, where will you stand?

The Image of God

Many are they that cry out against God for the unfairness of it all. They are protesting their sin nature (Rom. 3:10,23) inherited from the father of mankind Adam. But the truth is that, for a couple of, and perhaps more reasons it can be no other way. I'm stepping off the deep end here to cause thought, meditation on the Word of God and research into that same Word.

God created Adam in His own image and that is an entire subject, by itself. Many have determined that God has the physical appearance of a man, but does He? Is that the image God created man in? I think not. We see in the first three chapters of the Holy Bible that God created the star, planets, universes and critters of the Earth and finished His creation with His most cherished creation, man. When we read the beginning of the Bible we see that God walked in the cool of the evening with Adam, God loved Adam. For this reason it follows that the man, created in the image of God, can also love. When we look at young men and women today, heck, look at our own youth, at the courtship rituals we went through, we spent time with our perspective mates expressing our love for them. Can you see the image of God?

Or a man or a woman to love they, absolutely, must have free will! A very similar free will to that of our Creator. We are much like our Father and yet, because of our free will we are different. My physical appearance is a combination of my mother's father and my birth father. My grandfather was a farming railroader and my birth father was a cab driving alcoholic but because of my free will I am a Christian that chose to follow my step-father into military service in Aviation. Just as Adam was made perfect, in God's image and chose to sin, in like manor I did my best to leave the bad behind me and be an honorable man who followed God. But as hard as I've tried, I still look like my father, in many ways.

My point is and what I wish for you to consider is that we inherited certain qualities from God, our Creator but we also inherited certain qualities from Adam and Adam used his free will to sin. We, having that same free will, do not have to live in the sin of our choice! As men and women, of the image of the most Holy God, we can choose to live a holy life, separated to God. We can also choose to eat, drink and be merry and die, the choice is one we make by choosing God or by refusing to choose. In either case we make a choice that we will be bound to for eternity.

Bond-servants

There is a huge area of misunderstanding in the Christian Community today and it keeps tens of thousands from either being saved or moving on with their life without Christ. Repeatedly I have been informed that a person is not God's or not Jesus' Bond-servant. I suppose a good deal of this has to do with our modern day misunderstanding of slavery but the moment you call or name Jesus your Lord you have admitted to having a master. One cannot have a master without being owned and if you are owned, you are some form of a slave.

Being a slave or a bond-servant of God's is best compared to being your father's son or daughter. Many, when they object, use the argument that they are a son or a daughter of God but that they are nobodies slave and this, simply can never be. Some parents are not so good in their parenting and never are really in control of the rearing of their children but the truth is that the Godly Father and mother are the rulers of the house.

When I was a lad my dad had certain duties that were mine, just for living there. Other tasks I was rewarded for, if I was mindful to perform them and dad did not have to remind me to do them, otherwise, I still did them but with no pay for the job. I was the bond-servant of my mom and my dad. My sisters had similar but different duties to take care of. Where I carried out the trash, fed, bathed and walked the dog, free, they washed the dishes. They got paid for washing the tub, doing the laundry and other tasks and I was paid for cleaning the car, gutters and other tasks but all of these had to be accomplished without reminder and on time.

I have given these duties of ours for an example of servitude, not to show you that God has a list of duties for you, that is between you and your Lord. Just make no mistake, you have a Lord and it is either God or it is Satan! The choice of who it is is yours but you cannot decide not to have a Lord, none of us are that powerful!

It's unusual for me but you might and you certainly should notice that I have not picked out a passage of scripture to launch this message. That is because I'm using the whole of the scriptures for the textual reference. If you have never read the scriptures through, as if it were any other book, I encourage you to do so. If you have not read the Bible through in the past year or two, I encourage you to begin and if you have read the Bible through, using one of the year long plans where you read these Old Testament Scriptures and this one New Testament scripture each day, I'm asking you to read it in my favorite manor, from front to the back. Read in this fashion, the Bible is a story of love, war, life, death and adventure that makes Indiana Jones look childish.

God bless and happy reading.

Who are you following?

2Ki 22:12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

2Ki 22:13 Go ye, inquire of Jehovah for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is the wrath of Jehovah that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.

There are many paths for a man or a woman to follow today but when all of this is over only one will have been the correct path. Any Christian, should be able to tell you that and if they are following that path, they can point you down that trail and explain to you why it is the only path to eternal happiness. At the same time, in many Christian Churches, there are Pastors that are teaching, exactly, the opposite to this great truth.

There are men, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen and many others that have become very successful in the eyes of the world about them. They are in the business of building Mega-Churches and that, in and of itself, is a problem. Christianity is not a business and it, in it's purest form, is not a religion! When we examine John 1:1-3 and then pray for God to teach us and we yield our minds, in prayer, to the Holy Spirit in meditative study, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Jesus, the God of the Old Testament, created Adam for fellowship and not for religion. (Gen. 1-3)

If we will take the time to act like the Berean Believers (Acts 17:10-14) we can never be mislead and taught to believe lies. Rick Warren and Joel Osteen are very inspiring, motivational, speakers and both of them pretend to teach what the Word of God has to say, but do they? Mr. Warren is the pastor of Saddleback church in California and Joel pastors? A mega-church, here in SE Texas. Mr. Warren and Mr. Osteen have books published and are become rich through their ministries. The first question about any leader in any church, myself included, is, “Does their teaching reflect the teaching of the Bible or do they use the Bible as a prop in their teaching?”

Over the past 21+ years I have often been accused of bilking the masses to become rich but the truth is that I began my ministry while I worked 5 and 6 days a week as a truck driver and today I live off my Veteran's Pension. I have, over the years received a few small, unsolicited, gifts from anonymous benefactors that choose to remain unannounced and their gifts have all been used to purchase computer parts and software to the benefit of the work God has led me to perform in His name.

In the case of the mega-church leaders it is imperative that we guard our hearts and not be swept along with the crowd. The truth is that the crowd is on it's way to Hell ad God has called nobody to go there! Now, in the case of Joel Osteen, he rode his father's coat-tails into the ministry and is a great motivational speaker, but pulling yourself up by your boot-straps is not scriptural! In Psalm 46:10 and by chain-referencing from there we learn that we are to depend on God and not ourselves.

In the case of Rick Warren we must be even more attentive to what proceeds out of his mouth. While Mr. Warren is seen, by the press, to be in a different light from Fred Phelps, of Westboro Church, I place them in the same light! Fred is teaching hate and Rick is teaching put your Bible down and listen to me! (See the Purpose Driven Life Course) Any man, woman or child that is being taught the Word of God, from the Word of God will see Red Flags popping into the air when any of these men and many, many others are teaching.

When any person sits in my class, hears me preach or reads a message published by me, the very first item they need is to have their copy of the scriptures in their hand. In class I can accept nothing less but on the World Wide Web I know that this is not the case from the questions I am presented after a message. The truth of the matter is that today we must choose who we will follow and if you choose to follow me you are lost... eternally! My family and I have chosen to follow God and my message to you is to do the same! God has lead me into this Teaching Ministry and I have food to eat, a warm trailer to live in and my wife has a nice GMC truck to get me to the VA and to church with. I have my needs met and my riches are laid up for me in Heaven, where, after this short period, I will reside forever. My dearest hope is to see you there also!

May God always bless you just as He is me!

Where Will You Stand?

Where will You Stand?

Joh 15:18 If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated me before it hated you.

The verse quote is from the ASV.

This week my class will be a study on A Hill On Which To Stand. In class, we will use 1 Kings 18:20-21, 37-39, 19:1-3a &13b-18. I have included the above passage because it fits so very well.

Recently I have posted other articles that are, sometimes, hard teachings and some of the time, basic, but against the human nature and always, as expected, there are a number that rebuke me from one position or another. If a man, or a woman, will turn their life over to the calling of the Holy Spirit they will be rebuked and will need to learn to discern Spirit led from Satanic led rebukes. And, always, remember that the Satanic led are fooled and are not, usually, aware that the spirit leading them is not the Holy Spirit.

I have repeatedly seen people that are assuring me or another teacher that they have received a revelation from the HS that supersedes the Bible. First of all, the Holy Spirit is not HS!
God, all three persons, must be revered and never treated casually. I am always rebuked for being to Legalistic for statements like this one and for telling folks that God is spelled with a capital g and never the lower case. I am often assured, by others that these repetitive misspellings are just a typo but I tell you that if I write god and then I write God in the next sentence I have committed two errors and both, in the case here, are sins against God! I have indeed made a typo on the first spelling and that is an accidental sin and not proof reading my text before posting the error is a sin of omission! But, if I use the lower case when speaking of the god or gods of this world and repetitively spell the name of God with the same lower case... it is not a typo! That is disrespect, intentional or forgetful, of God and does not bring a twinkle to the eye of God!

Before you get upset with me, read John 1:1-5! Jesus is the same unchanging God of the Old Testament, Malachi 3:6, that killed all of Achan's family, Joshua 7:1-20, for Achan's sin against God. God, Jesus, even killed Achan's children and God punished the entire nation for this sin, before Israel knew of it at the Battle of Ai. God is forgiving, He always has been, but when, if not today, will you ask for forgiveness and repent of your sin? The longer you dwell in any sin, the more stiff necked you become. And, until you ask for forgiveness, in repentence God does not forgive.

Like Joshua, I and my family have staked out our hill to stand on, we are going to serve and to worship
God every day of what's left of our lives in every manor we can muster. In Matthew 7:23 we find Jesus telling those in the second resurrection that He never knew them, even though they did works in His name and for Him. I tell you the truth, God will not be taken lightly! He also said that if we love Him, we will keep His commands. Are you serving your Master or are you serving god?

The Triune God

The Bible is the Living Word of God. On a personal level, how does one deal with and explain that? It is really, quite simple. Each successive time that I have read through the scriptures and prayed for God to teach e what He would have for me to learn, I have received new revelations of the workings, the nature of God and what He wants from His creation. Although I have been reading through and studying the Holy Scriptures for the past nineteen years, it is still the most exciting book I have ever read... each time I read it.

Recently, I have been attacked for teaching of the Triune nature of God, the three persons being God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. These are the three "persons” of the One God Head. I will not lie to anyone and pretend to be able to explain all the intricate inner workings of the One God, manifested in three persons, it's not a requirement. What is required is exactly what I have done with the teaching of scripture. I have not just believed it to be the truth, I base a great part of my very existence on the "fact” that it is truth that I will understand better on the other side of this lie.
For me, it is the absolute truth!

How can I arrive at such a conclusion?

Plural Godhead...Gen.1:26 & 3:22

Threefold benediction...Num. 6:24-26

Father and Son (Old Testament)...Pro. 30:2-4

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord...Isa. 6:3

God and the Holy Spirit...Isa. 48:16

Trinity in one verse...Matt. 28:19

Oneness of Jesus and God...John 12:44-45 & 15:26-27

The Christ's Trinitarian teaching...John 14:24-31 & 15:26-27

Trinitarian benediction... 2Cor. 13:14

The Christ, God and the Holy Spirit...Eph. 2:22

Fullness of Deity...Col. 2:9-10

Spiritual function of the Father and the Son...2Thes. 3:5

Three, who bear record...1John 5:6-8

(copied from the book, "Where To Find It In The Bible."

This is by no means an all inclusive study of the subject but it is enough to see the truth!